so im building a new comp on a budget. The old hard drive from my previous system( the one im using now) is just fine and confidured the way i like it. how would i go about transferring my hard drive to my new system without losing what ive got? i have a driver disk that came with my sys board. at what point do i run the drivers disk? help?

You should have no problem moving the hard drive to another system. Just be sure to treat the hard drive very carefully and plug in all the cables right (red stripe on the IDE cable points to the molex (power) connector)
Think of your hard drive as a giant floppy disk. It's permanent storage, meaning the only way something will get deleted off it is by magnetic interference or you telling it to delete something.
That's it, you're set!

thanks but what about it recognizing the mobo?is it like "plug-n-play"

The hard drive doesn't detect the sysbo, the sysbo detects the hard drive. Trust me, it's not a very big deal at all.
Everything nowadays is plug and play comatible.

Hey harley007,

Like everyone has said, just unplug it from one and plug it in to the other one. Then let the system boot and find it. Once you are in windows, load all motherboard drivers first. Next update and install all your other drivers from disk's or on the net. After several reboots you should be in business. If you need any help, just ask !!

Re: Re: hard drive moving to new system

Just a couple of Q's to be sure:
1. what OS are you running?
2. what are the differences between the mobos? (chipset, integrated stuff etc.)

The reason I ask is if you move from one chipset to another you might experience problems in w2k and xp..
You might have to uninstall some drivers before you move, as windows might not boot otherwise...

.02$

And to add to what MrGaribaldi said, if you have win 9x, it may boot into windows but if you goto device manager and check your conficts and stuff don't be suprized to see a whole list. But your first clue will probably be your screen because you may be running 256 or 16 color.

You hard drive has the info but when you put it into another box, all your peripherals aren't gonna have the right driver info. Windows may prompt you to load them but as with what Mr. G. said, it is wise to unload them first.

Don't be alarmed by what we are telling you. You can get it working with no problem. It may just need some extra time.

Good luck

okay. first off thanks forall the help and advice. Secondly i am going from a k6 200 mhz processor on some kind of old (read: obsolete7 yr old mobo ) to a pc266 sysboard m810lr with integrated evrything, lan, sound, video, modem, usb,yada yada with an athlon xp1500. it uses aN INTEGRATED T-BIRD CHIPSET.
the system that im stripping has an outdated s3 stealth 64 that is Not a 64 anything, video card and a 20 dollar crystal codec soundcard.. did i miss anything?im gonna do this in an hour or so. please respond soon

oh yeah. win 98 se.

i'd be tempted to go into control panel and del all hardware not being used in new system to avoid conflicts.:grinthumb

I would also be tempted to reinstall windows over the top of the existing installation once you have moved the disk. It should keep your settings. Can't remember if it loses registry settings for all your installed applications though
Changing motherboard is just about the biggest change to a system. I would be truely considering a complete reinstall as this will most likely save from problems later on, but as everyone has said you should be able to boot after moving the hard disk over.
You may have a few performance issues and video driver issues so do consider doing a full reinstall. Just my thoughts on the issue

well here goes. im gonna do it now
thanks for all the help:grinthumb
hopefully ill be back tonight to let you all know how it went.

I would go with what Arris said too, I have reloaded win 98 on itself several times for myself and others. Most of the time it just changes or fixes what has changed and leaves your settings untouched. You may also be able to go and do a system file checker and see if anything else has been changed.

well all right. i did it. a few stumbles along the way and about 20 reboots was all it took.the new system runs at 1600 mhz and the three dee accelleration is sweet . i havent reloaded windows yet. i dont know if ill need to. from here on ill be working out the bugs tho. Thanks to Vehementi, Mr. Garibaldi, Arris, Boeingfixer, and Sydney. thanks y'all